Brazil registered 0.1% economic growth in 2014

The Brazilian economy posted a growth of just 0.1% in 2014, thus barely avoiding contraction.

The economy has slowed down in the past four years after growing briskly for a decade. According to experts, a combination of factors such as falling commodity prices and lower investor confidence is responsible for the slowdown.

Brazilian government is now going down the austerity route after trying to unsuccessfully stimulate the economy for the past few years by various means including subsidizing petrol and giving labor tax breaks.